


Finders Weepers

by SakuraWindChime



Category: Original Work
Genre: Based on Historical Site, Dead Body, Gen, Ghosts, Haunting, Horror, One Shot, Original Fiction, Oscurità: A Dark Anthology, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:01:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23722780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraWindChime/pseuds/SakuraWindChime
Summary: During a day out to the beach Erin finds a curious ring in the sand and takes it for her own. That week a historical monument is found on the same beach and Erin is yanked into a haunting world as her sanity crumbles.Perhaps not all things that are found should be kept.
Kudos: 1





	Finders Weepers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Oscurità: A Dark Anthology - a horror anthology compiled and published by [cellsinterlinked](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cellsinterlinked/pseuds/cellsinterlinked) on Amazon.

The sky was ablaze. Red bled into an orange that brightened into the sinking sun just before it died upon the horizon. A high-pitched scream bounced off the rolling waves, chased by a sudden splash as Amelia lost her balance in her run for victory.

Her friends laughed at her expense, Erin included. She watched with a grin as Amelia rescued their frisbee from the water and ambled away from the encroaching tide, clothes sodden and clinging to her skin. Loose curls tickled her nose with the rise of the breeze, and she absent-mindedly brushed it out of her eyes while Amelia found her next target: Erin. Gaze latched onto the neon-green frisbee, Erin raised her arms to catch it, jogging backward and jumping before it could sail over her head. Glee sounded from Erin’s throat, fingers clasping around the plastic edge before she drew it back and flung it on a wayward journey toward Ollie.

Her body lurched. The heel of her trainers snagged on something jutting from the sand, and Erin collided with the sand. Sharp pain pulsed across her backside and up her spine, subsiding into a dull ache while Erin blinked in dumb shock.

“Eri!” Ollie shouted across their play circle. “You alright?”

Erin shifted, wincing as she rubbed her lower back.

“Fine over here!” She called back. Satisfied, her friends continued with their game of catch with laughter and shouts in the perishing embers of the daylight.

Erin looked around and saw a jagged piece of wood stuck out from the sand near her foot. She glared at it until a strange shape in the sand caught her attention. Stretching to pick it out, she curiously wiped damp sand away from the small object to uncover, in awed surprise, a ring. She turned it between her fingers, inspecting the thin, beaten gold band to reveal a single blue jewel embedded within the metal.

Testing its fit, Erin admired how the ring sat on her index finger. In its simplicity and imperfection, it was beautiful and much unlike the rings seen in stores on the high street. Perhaps, Erin mused, the ring had been lost to the beach for quite some time.

A gull cried overhead, startling Erin out of her daze. Wading through the strange murk of her mind, she distantly realised that night had rapidly descended and her friends had set about packing away their belongings.

“Hey guys,” Erin called out as she approached, snagging her bag from the sand, “look what I found by that wood over there.” She proudly presented her newly adorned hand, wiggling her fingers.

Lily’s eyes lit up at the ring, taking Erin’s hand within her own for a closer look. “ _Oh_ nice! Lucky find, it looks expensive” she lilted, much to the appreciative chorus from the rest of the group.

“It’s pretty isn’t it,” Erin beamed, taking her hand back and giving the ring a rub with her fingers. “Do you think I should keep it?

“Someone probably lost—”

“Yeah! Finders keepers,” Luke interrupted Amelia’s presumably very sensible suggestion with a mischievous grin.

“I _was_ going to say that maybe you should hand it into the police station. It looks like an engagement ring, or something precious. Someone’s probably really missing it,” Amelia finished with a reprimanding glare in Luke’s direction.

He laughed, giving Amelia’s shoulder a playful push. “ _Or,_ keep it because it’s probably been lost for ages and the owner would’ve forgotten about it already.”

Erin hummed in contemplation, wrenching her eyes away from the ring to cross the road. “Handing it in would be the right thing to do . . .” she trailed off, silently wishing for Luke’s words to be true.

Surely there was no harm in keeping the ring if no-one missed it.

They continued down the familiar route leading to their off-campus university accommodation and Erin bid her friends goodbye once they reached her block. Still giddy from the wonder of discovering such a treasure in the sand, Erin once again found herself gently thumbing over the golden band.

But there was one thing that caused her to frown in confusion as she unlocked the door to her single-room flat. Expecting the metal to be warm after the walk home, Erin frowned when her fingers touched the ring.

It was icy cold.

* * *

Monday morning found Erin sitting in her 9 a.m. lecture, cursing her past self for thinking _that_ was a good idea. Hardly processing how she had even come to be sitting at the desk, Erin idly wondered where the weekend had disappeared. It was like it had completely evaporated from time and living memory with how little she remembered of the past forty-eight hours.

The screen of her mobile phone drew her sluggish gaze as it lit up beside her, signalling a new message to the group chat Erin shared with her friends. Then swiftly followed by another. Resigning herself to the fate of reviewing the online presentation at a later date, Erin opened the messaging app, running her thumbnail over the indents of the ring while reading them.

[Ollie] _Isn’t this what Eri tripped on the other day?_

Erin tapped the attached hyperlink, a news article from _The Regional_. The emboldened headline ‘Historic Timber Circle Found on Local Beach’ stood stark across the screen. Her ring _clacked_ against the hard case as she grabbed it from the desk and sat straight in renewed vigour. Another message popped up across the top of the screen.

[Lily] _omg it totally is_

An image immediately followed of what must have been at least two-dozen logs like the one that jutted from the sand not two days ago. Long disused sea defences had seemed like a far more plausible explanation than a historic circle! Erin quickly switched applications and hastened to type her incredulous reply.

_This is crazy!_

[Ollie] _Apparently the archaeologists said that the tides washed away the sand_ _covering it_

[Luke] _we should go see it_

_whens everyone finished lectures_

Whether her friends were in equally torturous lectures, or just woken by the torrent of notifications, everyone in their group quickly chimed in when they were free. They arranged to meet in the mid-afternoon and Erin spun the ring on her finger with excitement, the chill of the metal no longer disconcerting in its peculiarity. It occurred to her, then, what luck they had to have discovered two such unlikely things on the same strip of beach. In the exact same place, no less.

* * *

Locals, newscasters, and confused holiday-goers made up the throng of people who covered the beach. Their chatter and broadcasting were loud enough to rival the crash of the waves along the shoreline, as Erin and her friends hustled their way through the crowd to grab a glimpse of the historical circle in all its glory.

Mobile phones waved through the air, offering a teasing taste on their screens, until Erin finally reachedthe front. A noise of wonderment escaped her lips at the sight before her. There was something about witnessing a monument in person that was far more poignant than a replicated image. Each wooden strut seemed akin to a permanent fixture, rather than a sudden exhumation, like it had belonged there all along.

Her eyes roamed around the circle, the clamour around her dissipating into nothing. She admired the mangled appearance of the central timber—when a horrendous _screech_ ripped through her ears. Shouting in alarm, Erin crumpled over and clasped the sides of her head. Eyes shut in pain, they tentatively opened once the assault ceased in mercy.

What met Erin’s sight was not the expected sand, but mud. Hands falling away from their protective hold, Erin slowly lifted her head from her sinking shoes as the frigid tendrils of panic seeped through her veins. It curled and _twisted_ with every inch of the alien landscape she saw.

Wood loomed high before her, casting its blackened shadow across the gloom; the sea nowhere immediately in view aside from the smattering of wet pools and the very distant rush of water onto a shoreline somewhere yonder. There were no buildings, no people, no animals. Only the expanse of wet land, the wood and vegetation. Her left hand tingled with the pricks of a sharp, phantom pin.

“W-Where am I?” Erin whispered shakily into the eerie quiet.

A caw pierced overhead and Erin flinched, breaths becoming laboured with the suffocating strangulation of terror. The raven swooped to perch atop the wood that resembled more a felled log than a living tree. The logs were tightly packed side-by-side, curving away from Erin’s view. Such an arrangement could only have been made by human hands. So, where were they?

Hopping off its perch, the raven disappeared to whatever was on the other side of the structure and, not knowing what else to do, Erin hesitantly made to follow. Slipping and sliding with every few steps in the squelching mud, Erin followed the wall of wood in its circle.

A wooden circle near the sea . . .

“There’s no way,” Erin breathed in disbelief through heavy pants. “It can’t be.”

Her numb fingers slid against the ridges of the moist bark, the ring around her index colder than ever. Eventually an opening appeared, wide enough to fit a person through and she gripped the edge of the wood to lever herself through the gap.

More wood stood in the very centre. A single column with gnarled protrusions fanning out in all directions at the top. It looked like a tree had been ripped from its roots and turned upside down. Just like the top of the central timber at the beach.

The raven cawed again, alerting Erin to its startling presence on top of the stump. It flapped its wings once, twice, then hopped onto a pale-coloured lump that laid in the middle of the stump. Pecking vigorously, the bird began to disturb the lump. Absently, Erin felt the stabbing pricks travel from her finger up her arm and the longer Erin stared, the more horrifically apparent the curves of the shape became.

Distancing herself from the sight, Erin watched, holding her breath, as a limb slipped to dangle limply over the edge. The minimal light caught a shine on the slender fingers and Erin screamed, falling hard into the squelching mud. The raven squawked, Erin’s feet scrambled for purchase. She needed to get _away_. To escape from the nightmare. She had to be asleep, dreaming. That person was dead! Why was there a body? Tears rushed over her cheeks and her feet finally found something solid to propel her body upward. The ring _seared_ around her skin; a freezing hand clasped around her shoulder—

Her eyes wrenched open to blinding sunlight.

“Erin! You’re awake!”

“Oh, thank _God_.”

A head intercepted her line of vision, blocking the sun, and it took a few seconds for the face to come into focus. Worry creased Ollie’s features as he peered down, his hand on her shoulder either in comfort or to shake her awake. Perhaps it was both. Ragged breaths rapidly rose and fell her chest, her fingers digging into the supple sand beneath her. Relieved tears swelled in her eyes and wobbled her vision. None of it had been real. It was all okay. _She was okay_.

“What . . . happened?”

“You just collapsed,” Ollie started, tone holding a frantic edge. “We carried you over here and you wouldn’t wake up. We didn’t know what to do.”

“Someone called an ambulance, it should be here soon.”

“You scared the shit outta us,” Luke rushed out somewhere beside them.

“’m sorry,” Erin breathed, turning her head to find her friends encircled with concern.

Ollie squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. “It isn’t your fault. The medics will check you over and you’ll be fine,” he spoke with the accompaniment of sirens in the background.

* * *

After vitals were cleared, questions answered, and so much paperwork filled that it took longer than the actual health check, Erin was cleared to go home. With a prescription of rest and to visit the doctor, Erin was diagnosed with a happenstance of low blood pressure and fatigue. Her friends parted ways at her block of flats, but only on the firm condition that she was to contact them if anything happened. Of course, she promised. An hour and a microwaved meal later, Erin dropped onto her bed exhausted and fell straight to sleep.

Thankfully, not a single after-image of that nightmare returned to haunt the slumber. Only the numbness of her left arm roused Erin from her sleep. Flexing her fingers to encourage the blood flow, her other hand felt around the bedside cabinet for her phone. Its display read 09:20, just ten minutes before the alarm was due to sound. There was no point in closing her eyes for those measly minutes. Besides, doing so only felt like she was inviting the horror from yesterday into her mind.

With a groan Erin deactivated the alarm, dragging herself from the warmth of the bed and into the shower. Any lingering anxiety washed away with the refreshing spray, though the feeling in her arm did not return completely. Finishing the shower, Erin dressed and padded over to the sink to brush her teeth. She pulled the hand towel from the rail to wipe the steam off the mirror, only to find the reflection to not be her own.

A pale, sunken face; lank waves of black hair; flesh gouged, left hanging with congealed blood—Erin’s eyes darted over it all, heart stopping, and a raw scream ripped through her throat. Its hand reached out toward the glass, something on its finger catching the light with a shine. Erin dropped everything in her hands and _ran_. Ran as fast as she could, down the flights of stairs, straight across the road. Car windows caught her reflection. _But it wasn’t hers._ That grotesque being met her with every turn. Every window of every building, of every vehicle.

No, _no, no_. It had been real. It was the same pale fingers, the same place on the hand that had caught the light. What she had experienced was real and the dead being was _hunting_ her. Erin’s lungs burned from the run, but she dared not stop. She raced toward the campus, praying that the open courtyard there would offer reprieve.

“Eri?”

The welcome sound of a friendly voice managed to halt her marathon. Just. Erin turned on her heel, ignoring the wall of glass alongside them.

“Are you okay?” Amelia called as she neared, brow furrowed in concern. “You’re shaking.”

“What do you see in the window?” Erin demanded, frantic and pointing toward their supposed reflections. She needed to know if she was the only person afflicted by the curse.

Visibly taken aback, Amelia slowly side-eyed the windows. “Uh, us?” She said, confused. “Standing here?”

Erin barely contained an anguished sob. Turning to the window, the clearly female dead being stood nude, raising its tormenting hand. Amelia had to see! Maybe a mirror . . .

“What’s going on?”

Grabbing her friend’s arm, Erin began to pull her inside the building but was met with resistance. “Come with me, please,” she pleaded, feeling the phantom needle pricks in her hand and arm.

Worried blue eyes searched Erin’s but seemed to find whatever resolve she needed to follow. Chest heaving, Erin hurried them into the building and zoned straight into the toilets. The line of mirrors along the wall illuminated not only the vacancy of the room but the sickening image of the dead woman in greater clarity.

“There, there! You must _see_!” Erin clamoured, gripping Amelia’s wrist tightly.

“I-I don’t see anything, Erin. Just us. It’s just us and the toilets.”

She couldn’t be the only one who saw! _Why?_ Why her? Erin wanted to scream and cry, collapse into the hysterics that threatened to overwhelm her. But abject horror held Erin hostage, standing steadfast and trembling while she watched the light catch the reflection’s hand. The pricks along Erin’s arm intensified into stabs; the dead woman’s fingers unfurled showing a thin, golden band wrapped around the index. A deafening _screech_ pierced Erin’s ears, her ring searing with a freezing burn. Crying out, Erin doubled over and yanked the ring from her finger. The screeching ceased instantly.

“—in, you’re scaring me. What the hell is going on?”

Ice cold bit through Erin’s palm from the ring. Golden and thin just like the one—

Erin shot up, eyes immediately latching onto the mirror to find _herself_. The dead woman was gone, replaced by their _normal_ reflection. A startled laugh bubbled in relief from her chest.

“It was the ring,” Erin whispered in realisation.

It must have belonged to the dead woman on the wooden stump. It was why it had all started when she found that damned ring on the beach. Watching the mirror, Erin quickly placed the ring on her trembling finger. The woman appeared again, reaching out. She pulled it off. _Gone_.

Erin had taken what was not rightfully hers and the dead wanted it back.

“The ring? What?” The mixture of confusion and worry weighed heavily in Amelia’s tone.

Erin whirled on her friend, causing her to take a step back. “I’m taking the ring back to the beach.”

Not waiting for a response, Erin rushed out of the bathroom, barely avoiding crashing into a woman upon her exit and she _ran_. Passed her campus; down the familiar, straight road; through the newscasters, the archaeologists, the tourists; stopping just shy of the timber circle.

With a bellowed cry, Erin gripped the ring tight within her fist and flung it into the ocean. Uncaring of the judgement of strangers and the water seeping into her shoes, Erin watched the waves claim its ancient relic once more. Tears flowed down her cheeks and, for the first time in days, the full feeling of warmth returned to her hand.

* * *

It had taken a while to calm Amelia down enough to promise not to say a word about what happened to their friends. A white lie about visiting the doctor and a couple of days rest later, life returned back to the way it had been before the ring.

Erin walked toward campus for another 9 a.m. lecture, why on Earth she had chosen so many crack-of-dawn lectures she did not know. Alas, every reflection was her own and she was _happy_. Passing a newspaper stand, a headline stood emblazoned across the feature board:

_Golden Hoard Discovered Near Ancient Timber Circle._

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first original piece of fiction to be published, which was so exciting! The historical monument the timber circle is based on in the pic is a Bronze Age timber circle called Seahenge found on Holme Beach, UK in 1998.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
